BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer
MILLSTONE — The school district’s business administrator reported on school facility safety at the last board meeting.
Business Administrator Brian Boyle provided the Board of Education with the annual report Oct. 24, which he plans to send to the N.J. Department of Education (DOE).
The evaluation report concluded that both schools suffer from overcrowding, but that the situation will be relieved with new construction and renovation, according to Boyle.
Boyle said the report notes that the Department of Education approved the district’s use of two substandard spaces in the elementary school and one substandard space in the middle school. The music room in the elementary school was converted into two small classrooms, he said, and the alcove in the library’s middle school is being used as classroom space.
Once the construction of the new middle school on Baird Road is complete, and renovations to the current elementary and middle schools are finished, the substandard classroom situation should be rectified, Boyle said.
In the summer of 2007, he said, the two small-group instruction rooms would be removed and the alcove would be made into a regular classroom.
Boyle said he visually inspected both schools with a checklist to compile the report for the state, and that cracks, holes and water damage were found in some ceilings, floors and walls in both schools. The maintenance staff is currently repairing these problems, according to Boyle.
Two drinking fountains in the middle school and two in the elementary school weren’t operating properly, Boyle said, and they will also be fixed.
In addition, the maintenance staff will fix bathroom fixtures in the library and the health office in the middle school, according to Boyle, as well as four fixtures in the elementary school that are not working properly.
Boyle said the board approved the district’s comprehensive maintenance plan on Oct. 10, and the 2005-10 long-range facilities plan on Sept. 26.
According to Boyle, the annual maintenance budget target for 2006-07 is $40,468, and the maximum amount the district may deposit into its capital reserve fund for that time period is $3,893,535.
A member of the audience asked if the evaluation included the high iron level in the water at the elementary school, which Boyle said had not been on the checklist.
Superintendent William Setaro addressed the matter, saying that the water has been cleared of lead and that the problem was caught early on.
Setaro explained that with construction going on, someone turned the wrong valve, and water went into the tank, bypassing the filter system. He said the school discovered the lead when the pump was not operating at a high enough volume during the backwashing process.
Setaro said the pump problem has been fixed, and the water is progressively getting better.
Setaro said that although the water could still be used for flushing toilets and washing hands, students were told not to drink it. In the meantime, the district has provided two 1-gallon jugs of water for each classroom to be used for drinking, he said.
Setaro said the school tests the water on a monthly basis for bacteria and metals, and that the testing is performed by an outside consulting company. He also said the state does not have a standard for the amount of iron that is acceptable in a school’s drinking water.
“Right now, it [the water] is at an .06,” he said. “When it is at .03, [students] will be allowed to drink it.”
Setaro said the school is backwashing the system every day after the children leave in order to purge it and get rid of the materials in the tank.

